A trip down nostalgia lane

I'd got a call late last week to say that my swan-neck iMac was ready for collection, complete with its new hard drive. As to data recovery, they said they'd managed to retrieve 'some' of it. Today was the first chance I had to pick up the (formerly) old reliable, and I decided to combine that trip with another one to see my print contact guy about possible software replacement.

First stop was Ballycoolin, off the N3. I paid my 300-odd euro and re-took possession of the iMac. As to data recovery, the advice was that anything further than they'd managed would require professional help, but would prove very expensive unless I was able to restrict a recovery request to specific files I knew the name of. Ah well, we live and we learn ...

After that I retraced my steps back to the N3 and the M50 and headed west for Naas in Co. Kildare. Naas (pronounced 'NACE' for the benefit of the uninitiated, incidentally) was a favourite stopping point way, way back ages ago when we'd go on what was then the great adventure of driving from our Midlands home in Carlow up to the big smoke which was Dublin. When alone with my Dad we'd make a point of calling in to Lawlors Hotel for a coffee. I remember very clearly that it was in Lawlors that I first tasked Java coffee, and I always associate this spot with my Dad.

Today I made a point of taking a bit of a detour when I'd finished my business for a break in Lawlors. The square it's in looks much smaller now than my memory of it, and I can't really say whether or not the exterior is much or little changed from the time of those stop-offs with my Dad. There's no doubt, though, that the interior is nothing like what it was then -- but then, these memories go back some forty years, so there's bound to have been changes.